[nabs-l] Equipment Coming In

[Jewel S.]

The bus situation is actually a bit more complicated than that. Wake
Tech pays for the bus to go to their campus. It is not a city-run bus.
Because it is not a city-run bus that goes there, paratransit does not
because no city buses go there. Wake Tech is paying for the bus
specifically because no other bus goes there, to provide
transportation to their main campus to all the people who normally
wouldn't be able to get there.

I also checked into getting something on loan temperoarily. DSB did
not have any notetakers or laptops to lend, nor did the college's DSS
office. I looked other places, but had no luck whatsoever finding one
I could borrow or even rent (all the ones for rent were too expensive
for me, and DSB wasn't interested in paying for it...

It is a big complicated mess, but as was said before "So this is
life." I know there is going to be harder things to deal with, but in
this case, I feel with the information I had, I made the right
decision, but I wish I had known then what I know now! In considering
dropping, I talked to my vocational rehab conunselor, the DSS office
at the college, our local NFB chapter's president, my boyfriend (who
should always have a say in these things, of course), and a few
students I knew who also had disability accommodations.

I just gotta go from here. Hindsight is 20/20 and I need to learn from
life. Is there anything I can do about the fund release being so late?
Because it is so late, rarely do people get their equipment in time
for school to start. This can't be right; they are accommodations
because without them, I and other students like me wouldn't be on an
even playing ground, so they expect us to start the first semester
without an even playing ground??

Well, if I'm going to be able to meet up with my boyfriend at 1pm, I
better leave now, so I'm out for now!

~Jewel

On 9/2/10, Joe Orozco <jsorozco at gmail.com> wrote:
> Jewel,
>
> I apologize, not for what I wrote but for still not understanding.  Several
> suggestions were made for you on how to locate loaner equipment.  I wonder
> if you contacted your NFB affiliate to raise hell on your behalf at the
> agency.  I think it easy to utilize the organization's lists but sometimes
> forget that there really is a machinery in place behind the lists to help
> people in these types of everyday situations.  I specifically offered to
> write or call on behalf of students experiencing difficulty in obtaining
> accommodations.  Did you get in touch with your local Lions' Club?  Since we
> spoke of accommodations on campus, did you fully assess the availability of
> equipment at your school?
>
> I am one individual who did not receive their equipment until November of my
> freshman year.  Actually, the boxes arrived just as I was checking out of my
> dorm to go home for Thanksgiving.  The only reason things sped up is because
> after speaking to my counselor's supervisor I threatened to take my
> grievance to the top of the agency, never mind regional office nonsense.
> Until that point I was using an old desktop I'd scrounged up from my
> parents' house and a slate and stylus.  Looking back, I probably took better
> notes on the slate because I was concentrating on only taking down main
> points.  But, fine, my abilities are not the abilities of others, and no one
> likes being compared to other people.  Yet, I think it important for us to
> realize that just as someone is out there doing something better than us,
> there is also someone who is having it a lot worse.
>
> My fear with your situation is that you feel the answer to your success in
> school relies on the availability of a long list of equipment.  Technology
> breaks down.  My freshman year was not the first time I found myself slating
> notes, and so when one of your devices breaks down, are you going to drop
> your classes midway?  Later in your professional career are you going to not
> show up to work if your Braille device malfunctions and breaks down one day?
> People have offered various ways to make the equipment that you do have work
> to your advantage.  If you feel genuinely at a loss, perhaps training is
> something worth considering.  I don't say this in a spirit of condescension
> but rather as a feasible suggestion.  There is a lot wrong with forced
> rehabilitation training but nothing at all wrong with voluntary enrollment.
>
> Your schedule was a tough one but is not altogether an abnormal one.  First,
> I somehow doubt your schedule was the same every day since you would have
> had to have been taking a ridiculous number of hours for this to be the
> case.  Since you've made it pretty clear that there is only so much work you
> can handle, I do not think an exceptionally full load was the case.  I think
> it possible for you to have caught up on transcribing notes during down
> times, whether at home or on campus at a library somewhere.  Second, part of
> your extended schedule is owed to your mobility.  It may very well take you
> longer to walk about, but not using a wheelchair is a choice you
> independently made.
>
> I promise I am not nearly as mean as I may be coming across.  I thoroughly
> enjoy reading your posts and think you generally have excellent ideas.  A
> lot can be gleaned from a person's writing style, and although it is no
> substitute to knowing a person, I feel it is enough to sense you are a lot
> more resourceful than you are giving yourself credit.  I do not like the
> precedent this sets for younger students who may think it okay to stop
> something just because the situation is not perfect.  Life is not perfect,
> but many people did it, and did it well, long before the idea of Braille
> notetakers and screen readers were conceived.
>
> Now, moving forward, let me first suggest you consider using Jarte.  It's an
> editor that you might think of as WordPad on steroids and is fully
> accessible with screen readers.  You can find it at Jarte.com.
>
> Next, are there any online courses you can consider enrolling in?  Are there
> perhaps any Hadley courses you can take and gain credit for one or two of
> your college credits?  Time's too valuable to let a semester slide by.  I
> might also consider maintaining contact with the professors you would have
> had this semester to see about pre-arranging things for the next round.
>
> Third, you may not be enrolled in class this semester, but this does not
> mean you can't start to become active with some of the campus groups.  Can
> you contact some volunteer organizations about potentially arranging
> transportation for the spring term?
>
> Finally, what can your disability office start doing to help reproduce some
> of your textbooks?
>
> The overriding point here is not to let challenges get the best of you.  You
> can do a killer job at whatever you commit yourself to accomplishing.
> There's nothing wrong with venting, and I'm sure during my undergraduate I
> did plenty of it.  There's also nothing wrong with building ourselves up
> with the support of other empathetic individuals, but just know that in
> every supportive group there is at least one person willing to give you a
> healthy kick in the ass to get you moving again.  It's not out of malice,
> just a little tough love.  Ask Mike Freeman how many times he's set me
> straight.
>
> Anyway, there I go writing a damn novella again.  Whatever you do, I hope
> you try your hardest, and whatever you do in the future, do, not, give, up!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Joe
>
> "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves,
> some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jewel S. [mailto:herekittykat2 at gmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 9:30 PM
> To: jsorozco at gmail.com; National Association of Blind Students
> mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Equipment Coming In
>
> I don't think you realize the computer I'm using...this computer is
> over ten years old, doesn't have Microsoft Office (so I use WordPad
> only), and has NVDA only, whic can be a mjaor pain. I use this
> computer for internet use only, and it's not even reliable for that,
> since it can randomly freeze up and require a reboot. It has also
> completely crashed several times in the last year, requiring repairs
> that left me without a computer for a minimum of a week (and once, it
> was out of commission for a month, since I couldn't afford the
> repairs). Other than what little I can do on this computer, I have to
> go to the public library (which takes minimum half an hour bus ride
> and quite a bit of walking to get to) or to the community college's
> computer lab (which takes me two hours to get to). With my school
> schedule, I was getting home at 6:30pm after classes already, so
> staying after school really wasn't an option, and I was leaving at 6am
> just to get to school 10 minutes before class started, so early
> arrival was out, too.
>
> Don't assume that I wanted to postpone classes for my own reasons. I
> would do anything to be in classes right now, but now that I've
> dropped, I can't get back in. I *want* to be in classes, and I thought
> long and hard before dropping from classes, giving it a full week of
> trial without equipment. Between my physical condition deteriorating
> and my limited ability to participate in classes, it simply wasn't
> possible for me to stay in classes and work at my full potential.
> Sure, I could have stayed in and worked at less than potential, but I
> need to keep up a great GPA in order to get into the college I want to
> transfer to and get the grants and scholarships I need to attend that
> school. Because I am a visual and tactile learner, the audio books and
> recorded classes were difficult for me to work with. I needed hands-on
> learning, which I will get with the refresthable Braille display and
> the Victor Stream (which is audio, but allows me to spell words as
> needed, so I can write things down knowing the right spelling, like
> vocabulary and names).
>
> Please don't make assumtions like this when you can't possibly know
> the full story. You are putting the blame on me for not being able to
> accept my fate and work at less than full potential. I *will* work at
> full potential, and I will not allow other people to stop me from
> that. Me stopping me is a different story, but other people stopping
> me from being all I can be is not acceptable.
>
> ~JEwel
>
> On 9/1/10, Joe Orozco <jsorozco at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Jewel,
>>
>> How does that Darryl Worley song go?  Sounds like life to me?
>  You know, I'm
>> not downplaying the necessity of equipment to successfully
> complete class
>> assignments, but between a recorder and a computer that appears to be
>> working reasonably well to write posts, I think you could
> have made it work.
>> >From this position it sounds as though you were looking for
> reasons to
>> postpone class, and now you'll have several months to
> contemplate why you
>> should not give up too soon.  Circumstances will not be quite
> so forgiving
>> when your sustainability depends on a job salary.  You may
> liberally yell at
>> me for assuming and for pretending to understand your
> situation, but it's
>> frustrating to see up and coming students generate much
> larger lists of the
>> challenges than the abilities.
>>
>> Respectfully,
>>
>> Joe
>>
>> P.S. You can hear the song here:
>>
>>
> http://s0.ilike.com/play#Darryl+Worley:Sounds+Like+Life+To+Me:10
> 5008242:s315
>> 60646.12494198.9720862.0.2.233%2Cstd_a3cbac552e9145ca912afe1e8fdd407d
>>
>> "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up
> their sleeves,
>> some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org
>> [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jewel S.
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 8:38 PM
>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [nabs-l] Equipment Coming In
>>
>> Hey all,
>> I got my VictorStream Reader today, and have it authorized for RFBD
>> already and have the process started for NLS books.
>>
>> DSB says that my equipment is coming in and as soon as all of it is in
>> (except the VictorStream, which was shipped directly to my apartment),
>> they'll deliver it and get me set up and start learning it. This from
>> the people who said they likely wouldn't have it until the end of
>> semester...I am so mad that I dropped my classes now, since it's only
>> 3 weeks into classes now. I wish I had waited until the final drop
>> date.
>>
>> So I'm saying Yay for my stuff, but Grrrrr that now I have to wait
>> till next semester to get going with school.
>>
>> In the meantime, I'm going to be on DSB's butt about this. In NC, the
>> funds are not released until August 1, which is two weeks before
>> school starts...this gives no time for equipment to get shipped in in
>> time for school to start. This means that any student who needs
>> equipment to be able to work to their full ability in class can't
>> start in the fall but must wait until Spring semester. That's
>> ridiculous, in my mind. I wasn't able to keep up with classes on the
>> first week even because I didn't have even basic tools, like a way of
>> taking notes that didn't hurt me more than it helped or a good
>> accessible way of reading textbooks in class. Now I have the
>> VictorStream, so that'll be good for next semester, and they already
>> have my laptop (though they won't release it until all of the stuff
>> comes in).
>>
>> Does anyone else have trouble with late funding release in their
>> state? My local president and state president are pushing me to
>> self-advocate this, but I'm having trouble speaking up for myself (I'm
>> a bit timid in person), and I'm really not sure what I should be
>> demanding. Any suggestions on what I should be doing here? I think I
>> need to advocate for the fund release date to be changed to allow more
>> time, and I know I need to advocate for more students being allowed
>> into the college prep class at the Voc Rehab (they have a 15 week
>> maximum, and there was  a really long waiting list for college prep,
>> so I was unable to get into the college prep class at all). I'm also
>> hoping to see if they'll let me back in the voc rehab for intensive
>> college prep training to make up for the training I didn't get when I
>> was there full-time. They do allow intensive training (one week of
>> working on one subject only), but it is usually computer training, and
>> there is only one teacher there who can teach a scanner, one of the
>> things I'll need to learn, and she's the one who teaches the college
>> prep *and* consumer education classes, plus she has an intern she's
>> supervising, *and* she teaches a cooking class)...they have this poor
>> woman way overworked., and they aren't helping the students meet all
>> their goals by having a limited college prep placements...
>>
>> It's all a bit mess, and any suggestions, ideas, or advice would be
>> gratly appreciated. And horray for my equipment coming in finally!
>>
>> ~Jewel
>>
>> --
>> ~Jewel
>> Check out my blog about accessibility for the blind!
>> Treasure Chest for the Blind: http://blindtreasurechest.blogspot.com
>>
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>
> --
> ~Jewel
> Check out my blog about accessibility for the blind!
> Treasure Chest for the Blind: http://blindtreasurechest.blogspot.com
>
>
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-- 
~Jewel
Check out my blog about accessibility for the blind!
Treasure Chest for the Blind: http://blindtreasurechest.blogspot.com